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| January 16, 2006 | Monday | Zilhaj 15, 1426 |
Bulls keep a tight grip on capital market
THE KSE 100-share index, in the week ahead, briefly crossed the psychological barrier of 10,000 points. Though, this was the second time in a year in the bourses’ trading history that the index touched such high levels but then it failed in sustaining the same due to the late pre-Eid holiday profit-selling.
The close of index, just 10 points below the target, reflected that the leading bulls were eyeing the level well above this as the selling failed in pulling the index sharply down. Bulls appeared in no mood to loosen their grip on the price line at least for the near-term.
Bank shares, under the lead of the National Bank and the Muslim Commercial Bank, which already had hit their career-best levels and some leading oil shares and the PTCL were chief motivating factors behind the meteoric rise of stock market over the last couple of months.
The high corporate earnings by most of the leading banks for the year-ended December 31, 2005 and the rumours of handsome dividend and bonus shares by some of them were the chief motivating reasons behind the sustained run-up, brokers said
The index finally ended the session at 9,990.19, just 10 points away from the coveted level, up at 103.89 point or 1.05 per cent as compared to 9,886.30 points at the last weekend.
By now it could have been well above the historic level had there not been a crash similar to the one in March, 2005, said a leading analyst. But now I don’t foresee price manipulation by the big ones as corrective steps were already taken by the authorities.
The year 2006 could witness the rise to the index level of 12,000 if all goes well on the political front, some others predicted but warning the investors to play safe before riding the bandwagon of a rising market.
There were no clear evidence of the presence of foreign buying but some analysts believed the current sharp rise in some oil and bank shares due to the same.
The market was led by the National Bank, the Muslim Commercial Bank, the Pakistan Telecommunication Corporation Limited, the Pakistan Petroleum limited, the Pakistan Oilfields, and the Oil and Gas Development Corporation. This was followed by the fresh oil and gas discoveries which appeared to be the leading motivating factors.
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As widely speculated, the coveted level of 10,000 points did not remain an elusive goal during the pre-Eid holiday trading as leading investors, despite being a bit worried over the developing political situation on the Kalabagh dam and in Balochistan, hit the target though briefly.
The market was closed for Eid holidays from January 10 till 15. It will reopen on Monday, January 16. The fears that anything could happen against the market during the intervening holidays kept the investors most of the time on the sidelines.
Despite the presence of some irritants, the future market outlook appeared a bit bullish as was the presence of strong selective buying on those counters where potential of capital gains still exist, floor brokers said.
Plus signs dominated the list under the lead of Nestle Pakistan and Wyeth Pakistan up by Rs40 and 100 at Rs840 and 2,100 against the face value of Rs10, while the Mustehkam Cement and the Colgate Pakistan fell by Rs7.40 and 12, respectively.
The trading volume fell to 321 million shares from the previous 383 million shares but the gainers maintained a strong lead over the losers at 219 to 152, with 42 shares holding on to the last levels.
The National Bank of Pakistan topped the list of most actives and was higher by Rs9.25 at Rs226 on 62 million shares; followed by the Muslim Commercial Bank up Rs3.75 at Rs189.75 on 31 million shares; the Fauji Fertiliser, Bin Qasim firm by 45 paisa at Rs40.15 on 28 million shares; the OGDC up Rs1.15 at Rs121.75 on 22 million shares; the Lucky Cement higher by Rs1.15 at Rs92.85 on 18 million shares; the PTCL steady by 45 paisa at Rs66.50 on 14 million shares; the Pakistan Petroleum higher by Rs1.80 at Rs216.50 on 10 million shares; and the Pakistan Oilfields higher by Rs5 at Rs440.50 on nine million shares.
FORWARD COUNTER: The National Bank was also actively traded on this counter and rose sharply up amid active trading and on persistent support followed by the Muslim Commercial Bank, the Bank of Punjab and some others.
Among the oil shares, the OGDC, the Pakistan Petroleum, and the Pakistan Oilfields also rose sharply higher and so did the cement under the lead of Lucky Cement, and the D.G.Khan Cement. The fertilizer shares also rose and so did most of the auto and chemical shares on the reports of higher earnings.—Muhammad Aslam
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